According to Detroit Free Press, a local couple has now filed a class action lawsuit against Pokémon GO-developer Niantic. Their reasoning: Players of the popular smartphone app are being loud near their property, they cuss at them, they peek into their house´s windows, they even trespass and damage their private property. Because they couldn´t get ahold of the individuals actually committing crimes, the couple sues the developer, saying “they have made millions of dollars, while ruining the lives of many Americans“.

It goes without saying that the couple doing the suing as well as those defending them are utter lunatics. Obviously, Niantic never encouraged, as several users from NeoGAF worded it, players of their game to trespass into private property. Not only does the app tell you at every start exactly that. Its Pokémon radar ever since after week 1 of the app´s release also doesn´t show Pokémon´s proximity anymore. A Pokémon is either visible on your phone and you can catch it, or it isn´t visible and you will have no idea in which direction to go to find it. But I hadn´t planned on writing this blog article about the pure logical counter argument to those demonizing developer Niantic. No, I´m writing these lines to use the EXACT same logic that SJWs love to use to defend censorship in video games that occurs during the localization process from Japan to Europe/USA.

As most of you will know, it is illegal to present sexualized underage girls in video games. Which, to be truer to the fact, means: It is illegal to present sexualized fictional/virtual underage girls. We´ve seen this in many recent Nintendo games, where ages are upped from originally 16 or 17 to 18 or 19 in Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Project Zero 5, or where customization was severely limited in the Western version of Xenoblade Chronicles X. Older gamers will remember how Dead or Alive´s Kasumi´s age was upped from 14 in the Japanese version to 18 in the Western version of the popular fighting game-series. I made this argument before and I´ll repeat it on this occassion: I strongly believe it is wrong and ridiculous to apply REAL law to FICTIONAL characters. No real underage girl is hurt by having sexy fictional underage girls. It´s just that, fiction. We have thousands of games where we can murder fictional people without them being treated like real people (obviously), but we draw the line when it comes to sexualization? Humbug!

However, if we accept for the moment that that´s the unfortunate status quo … then why not apply the very same logic to Pokémon GO? The opponents of the app argue that Niantic purposefully places Pokémon on private property, encouraging players to trespass said property. BUT: Within the context of the game, these Pokémon are wildlife. It isn´t Niantic´s fault that wild Pokémon roam private property. No company can control wild animals, it is nature at play here. When a rare butterfly flies into somebody´s house, you cannot sue the state for trespassing bug catcher. No, you sue the brazen bug catcher. Yes, Pokémon are only fictional animals, but so are the aforementioned underage girls that aren´t allowed to be sexualized, because real law is applied to them. Logically following, real law also must be applied to the Pokémon in Pokémon GO! These wild fictional animals are freely roaming the environment as they see fit, dictated only by their animal instincts, akin to how fictional underage girls must be protected from any abuse.

Should the Detroid couple honestly feel threatened or inconvenienced by the wild Pokémon in their backyard, then they probably ought to hire a professional Pokémon catcher, who will probably get rid of all the mongering beasts. Meanwhile, instead of spending a single thought on deciding if that silly class action lawsuit should be put to court or not, the United States of America (as well as the rest of the world) should publically thank developer Niantic for leading a sedentary generation of youth back into the outside world, breathing fresh air, enjoying sunlight and interacting with other people. Thanks, Niantic!

In the advent of the soon-to-be-launching Nintendo 3DS and the fact that I plan to wait for its first revision (thx for infecting me with that idea, sigh), I turned around a gave the existing Nintendo DS-library a closer look. And I figured that there´s enough stuff to keep me well entertained for another 1-2 years. Right now, I´m playing Pheonix Wright: Justice for All and it´s fantastic. Then I´ll start the Professor Layton-series, to prepare myself for the 3DS-crossover. And aside from these older titles, Pokemon Black Edition should bear a near infinite amount of entertainment. Having said that, I thought how great it´d be if the Pokemon-series would see a rather drastic make-over with it´s inevitable 3DS-sequel.

Yeah, new clothing doesn´t equal growing up!

I´ve been one of the biggest complainers about GameFreak´s lazy efforts with past installments of the Pokemon-series, and yet I bought every new generation on day 1. And it seems this weird behavior will continue. But that´s the last Pokemon-game for the NDS, the next one´s going to be a 3DS-game, and Satoru Iwata, boss of Nintendo, himself recently mentioned that a Pokemon-title for the new handheld is underway. Whether that´s a main entry or some spinoff doesn´t really matter. What matters is that 2D-sprites won´t get all the little monsters very far in terms of a 3D-effect, so some kind of more drastic change in terms of visual is to be expected.

However, this could also make for the starting point of new generation of Pokemon-trainers in the franchise´s timeline. Specifically speaking: Have Ash Ketchum grow up! It always felt like a missed opportunity, seeing how the original Pokemon Blue/Red-players have grown up long time ago, yet Ash Ketchum is still the young star of the anime-series. How much more enjoyable would it have been, if that brat actually grew up in a similar time frame as the series´ fans? Anyway, that obviously didn´t happen. But it´d be fine to make it happen at any point in the future just as well. Have Ash Ketchum become a legendary master-trainer that´s told to be traveling the most dangerous, unknown parts of the world. And have there be a new main character, a new boy around the age of 14, who´s the new center of the anime, and will then meet the adult Ash in some of the episodes. “Epic” would be the correct word here.

Why I care? Because whenever I decide to sink into a franchise, I´d like that franchise to evolve, to keep on grasping my fascination. Besides the fact that I´d love the RPG-games feature more of the anime-show´s characters and plots, a “Next Generation” for both games and anime seems like a highly enjoyable event, that´s all. When the RPGs have to change into 3D-games finally, use that to introduce other changes, too. And when that happens, change up the anime, as well. It´s a matter of keeping it fresh, and let´s be real: Both games and anime have lost most of their freshness for a long time now.

It´s really hard to decide what to write about these days. Just today, Sony announced its PSP2-handheld, which looks as hot and shiny as its predecessor did back in 2004. Then, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Swords keeps on feeling farther and farther away from its release-date. And lastly, the way Nintendo handles the Wii becomes odder with every day. And I guess that´s something I´ll write about, though I´ll focus on a specific part of the recurring dilemma: Nintendo´s third-party relations.

No matter what happens, Nintendo seemingly can´t win when it comes to third-party games. The GameCube was a powerful system, only bested by Xbox, and only got what was left over on the multiplatform table. The Wii is tracking on par with PlayStation 2 at the same time in its life, and release lists are empty. They´re simply empty, third parties refuse to deliver anything that goes beyond a cheap party-game. Even on the Nintendo DS, the de facto most successful videogame system of all times, western developers completely ignore the portable. Now, the 3DS is about to launch, but somehow I´ve got a bad feeling about the support of Capcom and Square Enix, especially when it comes to Sony´s PSP2, which will see their support, too, and likely an even better one. So, with all those examples of how Nintendo failed at gaining third-party support, what´s left to do? Is there no solution?

Well, there is. At least, that´s what I´d like to claim. And there´s even a bit of an early proof of what I´m going to detail when you take a look at the Nintendo 3DS´ launch-lineup. The big first-party titles for launch are some bizarre submarine-game and the cutey-cute Nintendogs-sequel. That´s it. Pilotwings Resort´s going to be released rather sooner than later, but the two biggest inhouse-developments, Kid Icarus: Uprising and Ocarina of Time 3D are delayed till after E3, as Reginald “Reggie” Fils-Aime announced just days ago. In other words: Nintendo is granting third-party developers/publishers at least half a year to fight software-sales out by themselves. And even afterwards, what is it that Nintendo has to offer? Remakes and an arcadey flight-shooter? We saw how well Sin and Punishment 2 sold …

But that is exactly the way Nintendo has to pan out its first party-releases! If they want to acquire third-party support, that is. The one old, big (,and stupid) argument that these developers always made is that Nintendo-fans only buy Nintendo-games. Be it because Nintendo-fans are such fanboys or because Nintendo-games are so much better in quality, you choose, he! Anyway, if there weren´t that many Nintendo-games to begin with, even the most rabbid fanboys will be forced to take a look at third party-offerings, if they want something to play. And if that were the case, no third party-developer would have the right to complain about some kind of unfair competition – there wouldn´t be anymore direct competition with Nintendo!

But wait! That leaves us with a question: How is Nintendo supposed to make money with software? You know, since they´re a gaming company first and foremost! That´s the tricky part, and it is a concept that could only ever work with Nintendo. Both complaint and necessity, Nintendo heavily relies on its famous IPs. Some are sick of them, others can´t get enough of them. And surely, the latter mark the majority. But that is not a problem. Instead of handling its first party-titles like normal video game releases, just putting them out like any other developer does, Nintendo has to change their games´ public image away from the status of “just another game“, and towards something more similar to an event altogether. The best example to give you a better image of that concept would be to take a look at Dragon Quest. The mainline Dragon Quest-series is not just some game, it´s an event. We all know the photos of waiting lines in Japan. I don´t know if that´s still the case, but I believe to remember something about Japanese children getting one day off school whenever a DQ-game is released. That´s how much of an event that “game” is. Of course, it´s not necessary to take it that far, but it´s the same principle: Make your franchises into something special. Something gamers will look forward to, no matter the specifics.

Putting a bit more detail into that plan, think of it like that: Nintendo has several popular franchises. Those would be Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Smash Bros., Donkey Kong, Kirby, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Starfox, F-Zero, Pikmin, Pokemon. And many others. Now, if we remember the past few Nintendo-systems, there has almost never been more than one installment of each series, two at maximum. What to do is the following: Screw all possible spilled details about these games until shortly prior to their release dates. But do announce them a long time before the actual release happens. Also, pan their releases out evenly and scarce over the year. I would have to count all franchises to create a precise time table, but how about three games a year for each platform? That would mean that every four months, a new Nintendo-title is released, giving third parties a lot of time for their games. Meanwhile, Nintendo-fans have a release-list that looks like the following:

January #1: Kirby

July #1: Animal Crossing

November #1: Zelda

January #2: F-Zero

July #2: Pokemon

November #2: Mario

That would be Nintendo´s release-list for two years. And we would know of this list at least a year before the first game´s release. All we´d know would be “Kirby” releases next year´s January. We wouldn´t know what it looks like, what its subtitle is, or gameplay-ideas it incorporates. It´d simply be the “Kirby-day”. And all the details wouldn´t matter, because damn, it´s freaking Kirby! But maybe you´d have an easier time seeing the idea behind that concept if I used Zelda or Mario, but I think you get it. Let´s be honest: We weren´t interested or hyped for Twilight Princess because of “yay, transforming into a wolf!” or “hm, I´m really excited who this princess is going to be!“. We were hyped because, you already know it, IT´S ZELDA! The same goes for Mario, Metroid and most of Nintendo´s franchises. We´re interested because we know how great these franchises have always been, how they rarely disappointed. Details are unnecessary, and to get these games to the general public, a short marketing campaign shortly prior to release should be well enough. So, not only would it spare fans from spoiling themselves (thanks, Gametrailers, for spoiling me the Zoras in TP! Yeah, still bitter about that …), it´d also change how not only we, the gamers, view those Nintendo-games, it also would create an opportunity for both Nintendo AND third party-developers.

Seeing how Nintendo runs into problems sooner or later with every new console generation, how they cannot continuously support a system by themselves (not while satisfying enthusiasts) and how such planned out release dates would only help each IP´s installment to get all the polish it really need, that would be a concept to solve these problems. Just in case you think that would be too little releases, please take into account how Nintendo-games tend to be evergreens. A status that would only be strengthened by treating these titles as events. And if after all that Capcom, Square Enix, Electronic Arts, Activision or Konami are then still arguing about Nintendo´s software being too dominant, they can go **** themselves. Feel free to agree.

Pokemon Sunday revealed the first footage of how the Pokemon are appearing in the new game´s battle-mode. Instead of still sprites, there seem to be several ways for each Pokemon to move, as well as an idle-animation. Besides the new monster Zoruark, you can see Raikou as well as the three starter Pokemon, Tsutaja, Pokabu and Mijumaru.

Personally, I´m very disappointed at how sterile and non-dynamic the combat still looks. Then again, it IS an improvement over previous installments of the series. At least the upcoming Pokemon-movie looks good.

It finally happened, the new Pokemon-game got its name: Pokemon Black and White Edition! Seemingly, the game is supposed to come out at the end of the year, being fully revealed this sunday. From what is known, it´s a NDS-game, which is kinda disappointing, now that we know of the 3DS. For now, that´s all that is known.

And we also got a nice new artwork for The Last Story for Wii. The producer also spoke a bit about the game´s story, basically: There are two main characters, guy and girl, they have problems and so on. And there´ll be side-stories featuring other characters, too. Nothing that you wouldn´t expect of such a JRPG. Anyway, if the art style translates well into actual game graphics, this will be one nice looking game.

Once upon a time a phenomenon was born. This phenomenon, called Pokemon, started in 1998. Ever since then the Pokemon-series has become one of most successful and popular franchises of all video games history times. Just this year Nintendo released the Nintendo DS-remake of the Silver and Gold edition, originally released for the classic GameBoy. Soul Silver and Heart Gold are already selling in the multi-millions in Japan, and there´s not doubt that this kind of success will carry over to Europe and the US as well.

So Gold and Silver are ten year old now. And they´re not even the original Pokemon-games. I´m lucky enough to have been there when Red and Blue were released in 1998. Got myself the Blue edition and loved it. Back then, the game concept was completely new and unique. What made the experience near-perfect was Nintendo´s “marketing”. I don´t really want to call it marketing, because it made the franchise so much better, but of course, in the end it was one big marketing campaign. Talking about the anime-series. As far as I remember the anime started even before the games were released, so it built greatly upon the already existing hype. What made the anime so enjoyable was how true it stood to the in-game story of Red and Blue, From meeting Professor Oak, visiting the various towns, to fighting the well-known arena-leaders. It was all there. And while you watched the series on a daily base, fleshing out the Pokemon-universe, you yourself could become part of the universe by simply switching on your little GameBoy. And thus, the Pokemon world came into existence.

We´ve seen four generations of Pokemon-games since then. While the series has still many, many fans, there´s also quite a lot of former fans that feel the typical Pokemon-formula has gotten stale. From personal experience, that´s true. While Red and Blue were a great adventure, Silver and Gold already felt less motivating. Ruby and Sapphire were horrible in the sense of engaging me into the story. I just walked through the world, beating enemies, beating the Top4. Diamond and Pearl then marked the peak of me losing interest into “these” games. That´s not to say that my opinion is better than anyone else´s. Looking at the unbroken popularity, it´s hard to make a sentence against these games. Still, personally talking, I have a hard time getting into the well-known game setup. But that´s not just the gameplay´s fault. There´s a lot I´d change if I was in charge of the Pokemon-series (I kind of already described my dream Pokemon-game), but there´s also one important fact that plays a big role: The horrible design of modern Pokemon.

When you look at the original 151 Pokemon, you´ll see with how much love for detail these unique monsters were created. They´re all original in a way, they´re charismatic, they give you the impression of another world. Instead, if you take a look at the newest additions in Diamond and Pearl, you´ll see a lot of Pokemon that are basically real animals slightly changed in appearance. Sure, there have been real life-inspired Pokemon in Red and Blue as well, but these were few and they complemented the other Pokemon in a good way. In the modern games you have a hard time finding nice looking Pokemon.

That is why I love to look back into the original 151 Pokemon and pick a few that I believe really show the difference in design quality of now and then. Even if you like the modern Pokemon, it´s nice to get a little bit nostalgic and review the past designs. And without any further prologue, some of my favorite Pokemon from the original 151:

#006: Charizard

I´ll start with my favorite Pokemon of all times. Charizard represents a classic dragon-design. I remember how I started out with Charmander, only having this cute, little fire-attack, and fighting my way forwards. As many will remember, the first arena-leader featured rock-type Pokemon, so choosing Charmander at the start of the game really puts you at a disadvantage. But not for long and your Charmander evolves into Charmeleon, losing his cute look, and finally turning into Charmander. The combination of the strongest fire attacks, strong normal type-attacks and his special ability to use the optional flying-power make him a real powerhouse. Not to mention his appearance in the anime that really gave him a rich character (omg, poor Charmander almost died in its first episode!).

#027: Sandshrew

Admittedly, he´s not nearly as impressive as the above Pokemon, but once you made it through the moon stone cave and reached Azulea city, he came in quite handy. Sandshrew is just normal in every way, which his “variety” of attacks shows. Still, his scratch-attack was powerful and if you let him evolve into Sandslash he could keep up with many different enemies.

#039: Jigglypuff

The Pokemon that reinvented the term “annoyance”. God, the way it looks at you with his overly cute eyes and then uses his stupid pound-attack. If that wasn´t enough, the anime made sure to hate this little pink monster. The oly good thing that came from Jigglypuff is his inclusion in the Super Smash Bros.-games…nothing beats making fun of other playes by starting to sing inmidst of a battle.

#063: Abra

Psycho-Pokemon are just the coolest, no way to argue that. Abra looks so unique. It also looks weak, which makes it that much more awesome to use some of the strongest attacks the franchise has to offer. Both evolutions of Abra look great, too, though Abra wins due to cuteness. Oh you little, sleepy psycho.

#083: Farfetch´d

It´s a duck. And yet, the game manages to present Farfetch´d in such a unique way that it loses any kind of boringness. It´s behavior portrayed in the anime and his stick that it fights with it are so funny.

#038: Ninetails

Fire-type Pokemon are a rarity. Which shouldn´t make it surprising that the rare monsters of this type are some of the best designed ones. Ninetails is one of them, and only years later should I get to know that the Kyuubi is part of some Japanese myth.

#096: Drowzee

Wanna get to see the second most annoying Pokemon? Here it is! Oh well, it´s neither the games´ nor the anime´s fault. It´s Pokemon Stadium´s. That one minigame totally killed Drowzee for me. I could only ever look at it with a disgusted look on my face. God, did I hate that minigame. Still doesn´t change the fact that is Drowzee´s great design.

#012: Butterfree

Another one of these animal-inspired Pokemon, yet charismatic and unique. Butterfree was you best friend if you chose yourself Charmander at the game´s start. With a bit of grinding, Butterfree would learn a psycho-attack, basically the only somewhat effective attack against the first arena-leader that´s available in the starting area. Reading the Pokedex to learn that Butterfree dies after mating added something tragic to this otherwise happy looking Pokemon.

#129: Magikarp

The most boring designed Pokemon, one could say. And yet it evolves into the most angry- and fierce-looking Pokemon of them all. The huge difference between its evolutions makes Magikarp one of the most hilarious Pokemon.

#079: Slowpoke

I love how it just lies around, totally out-spaced.

#093: Haunter

I like all three ghost-type Pokemon of the original two games, but Haunter features the best visual design. It looks just like a ghost. I may add, though, that to this day I don´t know how there can be ghost-type Pokemon. As far as I know they´re not supposed to be the ghosts of dead Pokemon of other types, so what…are they?

#133: Eevee

That was just a mastermind-like idea: A single Pokemon that can evolve into three different kinds, depending on what you choose (nowadays, there´s even more options). Both the evolutions´ designs as well as the whole idea for Eevee shows how unique the first two Pokemon-games were.

#137: Porygon

What the heck?! That was probably everyone´s first reaction about this Pokemon. You could only get it at one of these shops by doing something (I cannot remember, maybe it was related to that casino-mini game). An artificial Pokemon. And its metronome-attack is one of the most unique attacks in all the Pokemon-games.

#123: Scyther

We´re close to the end, so you´ll see some of the, well, coolest Pokemon of the original games. One of them is Scyther. I don´t even know what to write, as it is so obvious as to why this Pokemon was so liked back then. Aside from all the obvious cool parts, the fact that it is an insect-type Pokemon made it that much better, as all other insect-type Pokemon looked just too insect-like, with Scyther giving a more unique impression.

#126: Magmar

It almost killed Charizard in the anime, can it get more badass within the Pokemon-series?!

#141: Kabutops

I´m a fan of fossils and such in reallife, so I absolutely loved Kabutops. And it´s one of the most badass-looking Pokemon, too. I remember it being one of my six regulars, nicknamed “Grimreaper”. Good times. And it´s water-rock-type. Also very special.

#142: Aerodactyl

How could I not mention it when I just told you that I like fossils. And dinosaurs (pterosaurs, to be more correct in this case). Aerodactyl was also featured in the anime, becoming a real threat to the series´ heroes.

#145: Zapdos

I usually try not to use legendaries in my regular team, but Zapdos was the exception of that personal rule. A flying-typ Pokemon that also was of the electric-type. Another strange, special combination. And I love the black parts of his wings. Gave him the nickname “Nightbird”.

#150: Mewtwo

The epitome of badassness. This Pokemon ruled everything back then. Its design is unique, its abilities some of the strongest. Having the most powerful psycho-attack AND the regeneration-ability, it could easily become your best companion or worst nightmare. It also had a very cool appearance in the anime and was the villain in the first Pokemon-movie.

#151: Mew

The Pokemon everyone wanted, but only lucky people could actually get. I still remember the rumored ways to get Mew. That there is a Pokeball with Mew inside somewhere near a truck at the ship´s harbor. I never got it. Nintendo only gave away Mews at special events, and of course they never happened anywhere near me.

That´s it. Writing this article made me look forward to Heart Silver even more. And, of course, the inevitable Gen 5-Pokemon game that should be announced rather sooner than later. Nothing is known about that new game, but let´s hope it introduces some spectacular new features and polishes the existing gameplay mechanics.

Feel free to post your favorite Pokemon in the comment-section. Maybe I´ll take my time and do a similiar article for the other Pokemon-games. They´re inferior in terms of quality Pokemon, but there´s some gems in there, too.

Video game music knows various degrees of enjoyment. We all know the many great pieces of beloved franchises like the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario or even Pokemon. These games feature pieces of music that you can always hum along and certain pieces won´t be forgotten forever. The Super Mario Bros.-theme is such a piece of music, the Zelda-theme and many of Ocarina of Time´s soundtrack are, as well. But all these pieces of music share a certain similarity, and there is a reason why i refrained from using the word “song”. They are not.

Let me say that you won´t find a guy that loves the soundtrack of all the mentioned Nintendo-games more than me. I have a lot of them in my daily playlists, I whistle the Song of Storm or Gerudo Valley-song all the time. But these aren´t songs. They´re part of a video game soundtrack, created to set up a certain mood in certain parts of the game. You could say, in a way, they´re “atmospheric songs“, there to enhance the gaming experience. That´s why I suppose that Nintendo is so shy of using orchestrated soundtracks for their games, as it takes away from the interactive atmosphere of the game. With Nintendo´s current music-philosophy, the music always matches what´s going on on-screen, changing on the spot if something happens.

But that is also the reason why every Nintendo game lacks it: A theme song.

There is the famous Zelda-theme, but it is not a song. It is a game-opening welcomer, like a voice in your head that tells you “yeah, my friend, you´re about to start a whole new adventure, have fun!” and you know you will.

This kind of music transcends beyond single games, though. It´s the signature-theme of a whole franchise. Whenever you here this theme you know it´s the Legend of Zelda. But it doesn´t tell you anything about a specific game within the series. That is what Nintendo´s games in general are lacking. The ONE identifying song, the ONE song that makes you remember the game you´re playing that moment. That song doesn´t exist. But it should.

Maybe, to clear things up a bit, I should give a simple example of what I mean. We all know James Bond, agent 007. This is the James Bond-theme that everyone around the worlds associates with the famous action-movie series:

It´s a great theme, but it doesn´t relate to a specific movie within the James Bond-franchise. That is where we proceed to James Bond: Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig as the lead actor. Listen to the following:

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a theme song. It is perfect. It is a fresh piece of music. It gives you chills. It creates dramatic pictures inside your head. It makes you want to get more of that experience. And it is a piece of music, a song, exclusively made for that one movie. Whenever you hear this song, you think of Casino Royale, instead of just generalizing “oh, it´s James Bond”. It´s that kind of songs that Nintendo´s games don´t have. And to give an example of a video game series that does what Nintendo does not, here is the Metal Gear Solid 3-theme:

I´m definitely no big fan of the Metal Gear Solid-games, but in terms of creating a great theme song for the third game in the series, Konami did a damn good job.

In the end, what I´m saying is: Using all the old, famous tunes is nice, and I´ll be in full hype should Nintendo reveal Zelda Wii with the traditional Zelda-theme. But what I´d hope for is that upcoming Zelda-, Mario-, Pokemon-, you name it-, games got a little more recognition as specific games, more so than “just” games that are part of a bigger franchise. Or in other words: When Nintendo reveals the “Legend of Zelda: Sky Diver” for Wii, I want a theme-song that makes me think of “Sky Diver” instead of “Legend of Zelda“.